If animation can be viewed as a kind of writing, then the exercises for “writing under pressure” (Bird, 2007;8) can be applied to this visual language. This hand drawn example was composed in half an hour, contemplating snowdrift.
Reading the 1955 Mawson Diaries of Fred Elliott and Jack Ward, I learn how Antarctic winds can suddenly arise from nowhere, and change direction unexpectedly. They both speak of the Antarctic landscape as having a life of its own, and it is often female. These were my thoughts as I drew.
A lexicon of human movement was envisaged by Rudolph Laban in the 1920s. He developed a geometric model within which the human form moved through a series of defined positions to express a range of human expressions. He described this series of moves as a ‘scale’.
Can visual gestures be the building blocks of landscape narratives?
Jane Winearls , a student of Laban, describes the “Principles of movement” (19778;17-27) in all of the natural world as comprisong “Tension and Relaxation; Weight and strength; Three Basic Rhythms; Flow and Guidance”.
Thinking of movement in these elemental forms has influenced the thinking of contemporary movement improvisers Hanny Exiner, Al Wunder, and Andrew Morrish, just to name a few who I have worked with. Each in their own way developed movement ‘scores’, within which one could improvise.
Improvisations in dance, writing and animation require such structures.
And what about sound?